benjarvis.org » Announcements

Importing LiveJournal and Blog Formating.

Ben — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:16:01 +0000

Over the next couple of weeks I will import selected LiveJournal entries, edit them for spelling or grammar errors, and standardize the formating. This means that now is a good time to decide on style guidelines. The web has changed the way we emphasize words, titles, and concepts. Some bloggers don’t emphasize anything, others hyperlink most of the key nouns in their post. I have a hard time deciding on bolding, italics, or both. So far I think bolding should only be used for the emphasis of proper nouns (like titles of works and names of people) and key concepts. Italics should be used for quotation, sarcasm, and questions. Or maybe questions should be bolded. What do you think? Or do you prefer this?

I assume you don’t bold punctuation. Hyperlinks are useful but should probably be used spareingly. Should I link to the wikipedia entry on every obscure topic? By the way, when (if ever) is it okay to use all caps? Ah, I should have paid attention during the MLA lessons. However, I doubt MLA applies to blog posts.

Let me know what your personal style guidelines are and what you prefer.

Wordpress 2.5 Upgrade.

admin — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:52:24 +0000

I just upgraded the Wordpress software to version 2.5 and everything appears to work correctly. Let me know if you see anything weird.

Ongoing Changes.

admin — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 06:01:29 +0000

One of the great things about using WordPress is that there are tons of plugins you can install to add functionality and features. Also there are 1000s of themes for WordPress and I’ll be looking for the perfect theme with the features that I want and the flexibility I need to make it look the way I want.

One of the features I just added is “Subscribe to Comments”. This plugin allows you to get emailed every time a new comment is added to the post you subscribe to. Just check the little box when you post your comment. It’s not perfect but it’s good for now.

So if you see the theme change or things go a little wonky, don’t worry, it’s probably me tinkering.

In the Beginning.

admin — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:06:31 +0000

Way back in 2002 (before I knew of such things as WordPress, Moveable Type, or Joomla) I had a hand coded blog that I rarely updated. It was ugly and cumbersome; I’m not even sure that it was hosted by a legitimate web-host. The original point of that blog was to keep family and friends in Los Angeles up to date on my trials and travails in my new home of Austin, Texas. It failed and I sought out an easier way to share my thoughts.

Sometime in the spring of 2003, I joined LiveJournal. I fully intended it to be a place where I posted stories, music, art, and all of the creative output that I had been making for most of my adolescent and post-adolescent life. For a time I was prolific, but eventually it became a hangout. I made friends (which was great), I learned a lot from communities (also great), but eventually my creative output dried up. Here and there I released an MP3 or bits of fiction. I would review things or write a HOWTO on some subject. However, it was always couched in that familiar feeling: “but it’s on LiveJournal“. Would people find anything I posted? Would they take it seriously? Eventually, LiveJournal got sold to Six-Apart and the environment began to change. People got shut down for speaking their minds or posting controversial material. I didn’t like the idea of being censored or banned for something I posted. Even worse, people were losing their data. There was five years of my life, sitting on a server with no real guarantee that I would have access to it from one day to the next.

I did the LiveJournal thing for five years, but earlier this year I made the decision to move. I still have the account, but I’ve been slowly transitioning away from it. Today I finally got the extra scratch together to buy web-hosting. I have a lot planned: fiction, non-fiction, reviews, rants, music, art, and hopefully a podcast.

Stay tuned.